Menu

rolling ear to ear and back again

WCW: Hedy Lamarr

Google featured her on Monday for her birthday, but since today’s a Wednesday, I thought I’d save her for Woman Crush Wednesday!

Not only is she iconically gorgeous, “the most beautiful woman in Europe” helped the WWII effort against Axis powers by developing jam-proof radio guidance systems for torpedoes and selling war bonds to people, as well as contributed to daily life by improving traffic lights and an Alka-Seltzer type carbonation tablet.

What’s notable too is the result of society’s odd attitude to sexuality; basically blacklisted for being nude and pretending to orgasm onscreen, she had to change her name to become an actress again, and was so afraid of losing her looks, she augmented them, Janice Dickinson style, and when she lost control over those and how she used them (as she sued several times for depictions of her and uses of her name), she became reclusive. She became an inventor and contributed to the war effort in a huge way, but mainly people remember her by her time onscreen in the US, and her scandalous time in Europe. When she was featured on Monday, and granted my instance is taken from a Facebook fragrance group, the only mentions of “oh, I know of her!” were about her screen time and beauty when clearly she was more than that.

Was it because she was sexual during a time where sexuality was alien that that’s all we remember?

Her end was fairly unhappy, and possibly a testament to how we treat veterans and others that participate in war efforts. “I figured out that I had made – and spent – some thirty million dollars. Yet earlier that day I had been unable to pay for a sandwich at Schwab’s drug store” which is an absolute shame. After doing what she did, she should be set for life, not die a depressed and bitter recluse, and we can well say that about basically any veteran.